


And Roland Carries On

by glassneko



Category: Dark Tower - Stephen King
Genre: Gen, Spoilers! Spoilers for the end of the book series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 07:58:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7631614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassneko/pseuds/glassneko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roland still does not know what draws him onwards. He sometimes wakes from dreams knowing that he once did, or once will? Time is funny, even in his dreams.<br/>He will reach the tower regardless. He's lost everyone, ruined everything. And yet, there is seemingly nothing that can prevent him from reaching that tower. But the tower will not let him go on without the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Roland Carries On

Roland has done this so many times now. Too many times. He's lost everyone countless ways, ruined everything times beyond measure. And yet, he always reaches the tower. That damned tower. There is seemingly nothing that can prevent his ascent of those steps. Time and time again.

The first time was not so bad for him. He did not easily form attachments, and did not greatly grieve his losses. What few companions he made along the way he discarded just as quickly, often for their own betterment, but just as often to their deaths. He didn't worry about it either way. He was beaten and bloody, true, by the time he reached that dark door, but still in fine enough shape to carry on. Not so for everything around him. The worlds were crumbling apart, the beams broken and the universe itself screaming in pain as the Red King reaped the very marrow from the world, but still did Roland walk those steps.

The more times he walked that path to the tower the more he began, somewhere in his deep unconscious, to realise his need for connections. For friends and allies, and eventually, even for ka-tet.

It is not a need for help, per se, but the help comes anyway. It is more of a need of understanding that he is not, after all, alone in this world. It is a need of understanding the value of the universe, not so that he can save it, but so that it can save itself.  
He will reach the tower regardless. But the tower will not let him go on without the world.

He still does not know what draws him onwards. He sometimes wakes from dreams knowing that he once did, or once will? Time is funny, even in his dreams.

He starts to remember the shape of things the more he carries on, and eventually, even his companions begin to have their own instincts and feelings. Not that he notices the differences between trips himself, at least, not at any point but that brief, bright moment at the top of the tower. That moment of sublime knowledge and agony. Those quick, shining seconds where Gan himself reaches out and touches him, only to declare him not yet true. To judge him still incomplete. To demand something more from him.

And so Roland carries on.


End file.
